*** Warning: this post contains quite some curses. Decide if you want to read further or not. ***
A new week, a new palabrota. I bet you’re familiar with today’s word, although you may not be aware of all it’s forms. You probably think its only meaning is ‘whore’ or ‘hooker’. Although it means exactly that, there are some sentences and expressions in which it has a slightly different meaning. Still, it’s a pretty vulgar word, and when I used it in front of a Spanish friend in Spain last year (¡Mira Andrés! ¡PUTAS!) he corrected me and insisted to use the word prostituta (from which the word puta comes).
A common exclamation in Spain is ¡de puta madre!, which hasn’t to do much with hookers and such. It simply means something like ‘that’s great!’, or a better translation would be ‘that’s bad-ass!’.
Still, in some parts of the hispanosphere it’s not done to use the word, not even ¡de puta madre!, so better check if it’s generally accepted before using it.
Sentences
¡La fiesta fue de puta madre, tío!
The party was bad-ass, dude!
¡Hijo de puta!
Son of a bitch!
¡Levántate de una puta vez!
Get the f*ck up!
¡Cállate de una puta vez!
Shut the f*ck up!
¡Este informe está de puta pena!
This paper is f*ck*ng bad!
Las pasé putas durante el examen de conducir.
The driving exam was really bad.
Related Posts:
Spanish Word of the Day: cojonudo
Spanish Word of the Day: zorra
Spanish Word of the Day: coño
Spanish Word of the Day: cagar (2)
Spanish Word of the Day: cabrón
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve got to say that, although I am not usually one for ‘palabrotas’, I do love the expression of surprise or disbelief – ‘me cago en la puta leche’ because it’s so, well, expressive!!
Lisaxx
Lisa’s last blog post..I wish the English…..
As a cuban humorist used to say : You spaniards are crazy…because if “the puta madre” means this is great, this is good…. “Where’s the good or great thing in callling your madre a whore? She would kill me if I ever thought of calling her that ”
MsNice’s last blog post..a snap worth a cold, or not. | pa’ pillar una pulmonía o algo. [Flickr]
Ramses,
You’re having way too much fun with these daily words! You may need to change the sub title of your blog to “Learn to Speak Spanish de puta madre”.
eleena’s last blog post..My New Year’s Resolution a month early
Yeah, I am concentrating a bit too much on these words. I almost have no time to write ‘normal’ articles!
Well… tell Andres that I don’t know who says prostituta in Spain instead of puta
I think prostitute is used when you are not familiar with the listener, or you want to remain polite, just that… because if you are speaking about prostitutes with someone, then I think you have enough confidence with that person 
You have some other words to use: “pilingui”, “mujer de la noche”, “zorra”… indeed, in Spanish, almost all female forms of animals have a bad meaning o:)
@MsNice, when you say “de puta madre”, we never refer to our mothers… You can also find expresions like “jodidamente bueno” (fucking good) and not because “jodidamente” have an usual bad meaning, the expresion itself is bad
As far as I know, puta/putae means in Latin “clean”, etc and seems that just prostitutes used to have baths or clean themselves that long ago
cheers
Well, Andrés is polite most of the time. That explains a lot I think
.
Hello.i’m spanish and i want to say you, good job!.
i want to say one thing about “Hijo de puta”
it’s a complex expression… and son of a bitch it’s only a little part of the definition for hijo de puta.
hijo de puta could be someone bad, or someone good, a friend or an enemy.
bad: voy a matar a ese hijo de puta.
i’m going to kill that motherfucker.
good to a friend: que pasa hijo de puta!
What about buddy?
good but envy talking about a third person Juan/John:
que hijo de puta Juan!, que cochazo ha comprado!.
John is a son of a bitch. what a great car has bought!
good, but because you are a bad boy. talking about a third person Carlos/Charles
que hijo de puta Carlos, tiene pirateada la wii desde el primer dia, a ver cuando me la piratea a mi.
what a motherfucker Charles, he has hacked his wii since the first day, i told her to hack my wii too.
mmm… there is a lot… you need to have special care with this expression because you only know if its bad or good with the information not talked (smile, hands, body, face, context… )
if you want another hard job try to get all expressions with “cojones” (bollocks)
Oh! i forget to talk about “de puta madre”…
de puta madre is generally good
¡La fiesta fue de puta madre, tío!
the party was amazing, dude!
me siento de puta madre!
i feel so good
de puta madre!! (if you win a price)
but you can use it to say somethig is bad but using irony like if you want to say something is good. imagine someone try to cheat you and you see the cheat…
de puta madre, yo hago el trabajo sucio y tu te quedas con el dinero.
fantastic, i do the hard work and you get the money.
obiusly you don’t think it would be fantastic to do the hard work and the other gets the money… so you say “de puta madre” like an irony and with a rude tone.
but as i say before, de puta madre is generally good things
what about weather in your holydays?
oh! it was a really good time, sunny and hot.
que tal el clima en tus vacaciones?
de puta madre!
de puta pena could be the antonim for de puta madre.
how about your exams?
really bad, sure i’m going to fail
que tal los examenes?
de puta pena, seguro que suspendo.
another like puta pena is puta mierda… you say mierda!=shit! puta mierda!=fucking shit! you say puta mierda when something is too bad like a movie
que puta mierda de peli (pelicula/movie)
what a fucking shit
or you want to say something is bad
que puta mierda, tengo que quedarme en casa por vacaciones
shit, i have to stay in home for holydays.
que puta mierda de mando que no funcionan los botones.
what a shit of controller, the buttosns don’t work.